iPhone 4G

The next generation of iPhone has been tipped to be carrying 4G LTE connectivity by Taiwan-based smartphone makers. It's through Daniel Shen of DigiTimes that this information is passed from Taiwan amongst additional information showing global acceptance of 4G LTE technology to be growing to a smartphone population of 45-50 million units inside 2012. This network of devices all riding on the same technology appears to be getting a final bump into a global necessity for the future of mobile due to the new iPad's ability to use it.

A so-called usability study has been performed by Professor Dennis Gallatta at the Harvard Human Factors in Design lab comparing one device from each of the following categories: BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Android, and iPhone. A video accompanies this test and finds results on 3 "tasks" that users who have supposedly never used the phones at hand before. Watch with us as they fumble through making a call, adding a contact, and sending a text. What we will show in the following text is that this is, and I quote a colleague of mine here and agree, an unscientific half-baked study by morons.

Yesterday's bombshell that AT&T would be buying T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion in cash and stock send shockwaves all over the industry yesterday, but today, the aftershocks have just as much resonance. AT&T representatives have casually mentioned that T-Mobile customers will have to replace their 3G phones once the merger is approved. The mandatory upgrade is due to the fact that AT&T will be spending over $8 billion to convert T-Mobile's entire network of 3G towers to 4G, rendering T-Mobile customers 3G phones obsolete sooner or later.

After all the excitement surrounding the release of the iPhone 4 on Verizon, the lines at stores were somewhat underwhelming this morning. This even though, according to Analyst Mike Abramsky with RBC Capital Markets, Verizon is expected to sell more than a million phones in the first week.Yes, it is cold outside, but that hasn't stopped people from lining up for new releases in the past. More likely, it is because this isn't really a new release.

We're live at the Verizon event today and we've got the prices now: $199 for 16GB model; $299 for 32GB model. This phone is due in stores February 10th - this is because they say they're trying to assure consumers their network capacity will deliver in the quality VZ consumers expect. Will we get to try out a review model today? Maybe - maybe not. That date might be too far out into outer space to have a review model on hand now.

I'm not sure what's up with the iPhone HD or iPhone 4G depending on what you want to call it turning up in some many leaks ahead of the devices official launch. Apple is normally militant about secrecy and all the sudden it's leaking like crazy.

As far as accessories and their manufacturers go, mobile devices from Apple are probably the most lucrative business to be part of. Because of that reason alone, we shouldn't be surprised at all that there's some forward-thinking companies around the world, getting ready for the impending launch of a new iPhone very, very soon. Although, if you look closely enough, these very colorful cases offer a few clues, or perhaps confirmations, of what's to come.

Possibly the largest story to break this year, or many years before this in fact, has snowballed into what many would consider a ridiculous scenario that's unnecessary, for both sides of the fight. While many of the details regarding the iPhone HD prototype's existence outside a particular site's hands have been hidden by red tape, most of that has now been cleared up, thanks to a push from other sites like Wired and CNET. Through their pressure, judge Clifford Cretan has issued a ruling Friday that made the affidavit and search warrant of Gizmodo Editor Jason Chen's home available to the public. Below, you'll find some of the details of what those documents revealed.

At least, that's what some people have noticed over at the Vietnamese forum. And, as unfortunate as it may be, from the image that goes along with the Photoshop reports, they may be on to something. The torrid affair of the iPhone HD's life in the public sector, well before launch, is obviously not going to slow down, and even though we brought these latest images to you earlier today (with an update that they could, indeed, be fake), it seems that it may be laid to rest.

As far as contradicting reports go, this one is definitely a big one. It hasn't even been a full day since we told you that the Apple/AT&T iPhone exclusivity deal was inked for five years, starting in 2007, and here we are telling you that a company is hard at work on the advertisement campaign for the next iPhone. And, sure enough, they say it's coming to Verizon Wireless.

Here we are, it's late Thursday night, and you're staring at your computer screen, catching up on the latest news in the tech industry. We're glad that you've made it to us tonight, and welcome to the latest edition of the Daily Slash. Tonight, in the Best of R3 Media, we've got Google Goggles getting a nice upgrade, a nifty trick to make your iPad work overseas, and supposedly AT&T has worked something out with Apple. In the Dredge 'Net, we've got a MacBook Air knock-off, the future of Austrian phonebooths, and OLET could be better than OLED.

Middle of the week again, so we've got enough news to get you through the rest of your night, before you rest your eyes and hit the tail-end of the work week. We're happy to have you here with us for another edition of the Daily Slash, and we hope we can keep you awake long enough to reach the end. First up, in the Best of R3, the HTC Desire's been rooted, looks like a certain online publication is going on the offensive, and does Windows Phone 8 already exist? In the Dredge 'Net, we've got a temperature-sensitive coffee cup, the BlackBerry Partners need Super Apps, and a touch-sensitive faucet that needs to be seen to be believed.